Opinion piece to the Editor

Once upon a time there was a peaceful, sandy public beach in North Hatley. Local residents went there for an early morning swim, families gathered for picnics and magnificent sunsets. It remained that way for fifty years, during which time a dedicated group of volunteers, North Hatley Recreation Society (NHRS), ran the beach safely, efficiently and harmoniously. They raised money to pay lifeguards, instructors and purchase equipment such as sailboats. The Town contributed very little to the annual beach budget. A few years ago, the friendly wooden palisade was replaced by an industrial style fence, but the gate was always open.

This “perfect situation” ended abruptly this spring when the Town made the beach their latest battleground. Now, the gate is locked most of the time. After trying to impose unacceptable conditions on NHRS, the Town has taken control of the beach and is limiting its use to certain hours on 71 days of the year. North Hatley residents collectively own this beach, yet access is now barred for more than 90% of the year, if all hours are taken into account.

If you want to swim before late June or after August 20^th or enjoy an early morning dip at any time, you’d better look for alternatives. Many citizens now go the municipal wharf for their morning swim, while the small park next to the wharf (belonging to the Lake Protection Association) is crowded with families later in the day, clamouring for better access to the lake. These new habits certainly fly in the face of the pretext of raising public safety by closing the beach when there is no lifeguard!

Other options are to crawl under the fence, remove gates from their hinges or come equipped with ladders or wire-cutters. This former welcoming haven has taken on the feeling of a detention camp, complete with surveillance camera. The beach is now half empty on hot evenings, because of the sharp increase in fees to residents of Waterville and Canton de Hatley. Far less children are enrolled in swimming, sailing and tennis classes. The rumour is that there will be no sailing and tennis for kids, this summer. Children will be the biggest losers.

The Town will now have to meet the full costs of running the beach. Amazingly, a month after deciding to take over the beach, the Town still had made no budgetary provision for this major new expenditure. Revenue will be down, while staffing costs will rise. Incredibly, the Town’s deputy manager and secretary were paid overtime to register beach users on the opening weekends in June. It takes no genius to predict a large deficit this summer, which of course we the tax-payers will have to shoulder. Paying a lot more for a beach which we will only be able to use for 1/10^th of the year is a no-brainer.

The rumour mill is going strong in North Hatley. Is the Town purposefully running up this deficit to justify renting space to commercial ventures? Setting rumours aside, this issue has undeniably raised more anger than any other Town decision in recent years. People have always enjoyed going to the beach whenever they chose. Access is now being controlled by a paternalistic Town administration. At the last two Council meetings, many citizens who normally never attend expressed strong feelings over the new beach rules. They do not want to be told when they can or cannot use their public beach. Yet their protests fall on deaf ears, nothing changes. Appeals for dialogue are ignored, as are petitions. Responses by the Mayor are misleading or meaningless, promises are broken.

Why cannot North Hatley put up warning signs, like almost every public beach in Quebec and elsewhere in North America, saying: “Swim at your own risk” or “Swimming forbidden when no lifeguard present”? 

Or perhaps the best solution: simply remove the fence and gate which are at the heart of the issue; this could apparently let the Town off the hook. I could go on and on, but I will finish by sharing three thoughts:

• One of the reasons we had for buying a home here 15 years ago was the lake and year-round access to the public beach.
• The Town is taking away an important incentive for young families to choose North Hatley, and even for new businesses to locate here.
• Some people who rent homes here tell me they might move away, if this stand-off continues. 

After all, what is the point of living in a village by a lake, if you cannot use the lake? Cutting access to the municipal beach in this heavy-handed manner may result in far-reaching repercussions on our community.

IMPORTANT: The Town has convened a special public meeting at 5.30 pm, Wednesday, July 4 at the Community Centre, to reveal the legal opinion which it has sought regarding its beach responsibilities.

Citizens should attend in large numbers, either to applaud or to protest.

There will also be a full council meeting a few days later on Monday, July 9 at 7.00 pm.

Michael Grayson

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